Thanksgiving and Poppy's Birthday 2019!

Baby Rose is the sweetest, and she looks like she could be mine with her red hair and blue eyes!

Caleb smoked a turkey on his new Traeger grill, and that seemed to be the hit of the feast this year! I even tried one bite!

Thank goodness for the meatballs and little smokies, otherwise some of these kids would have starved!

I gave each family a Lego advent calendar! It's so fun that all of the kids, 15 years down to 3 years old are loving Legos right now! In fact, Luke loaned Jackson a set of Legos that makes a rocket ship about three feet tall. It's consumed all of  Jackson's spare time. He even stayed home "sick" from school to work on it!

Thanksgiving fell on Poppy's birthday this year, so I made him a ginger carmel apple pizza cookie to celebrate. His favorite cookies are ginger cookies. 

I am especially grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the gift of repentance this year. It seems like repentance really stood out to me as I listened to conference talks and read Instagram posts from our prophets lately. Repentance was explained by one as "to change one's mind", which is a very helpful perspective for me. I make the same mistakes over and over again, and I wonder how many times I can repent and try harder. Reading that explanation was like an epiphany! I need to work on changing how I think, and then I won't make the same mistakes over and over...at least not on a daily basis! 

The kids got to stay up in Layton to play with cousins and build an enormous snowman, under the direction of Luke, and played video games with Caleb. James and I enjoyed a much needed break from the kids in our warm cozy house and had a date night! 

Sarah's Birthday...

I started out my birthday morning in the best way...High Fitness! It was extra special because Heidi let me pick out the entire play list, so it definitely felt like my party! The day before my birthday was TRX camp, and Heidi made a "special"  workout for "Sarah's Party". It was a killer! But then my friends brought a cake and cookies and a gift card! I am SO happy and blessed to have these ladies in my life to motivate me to be better on so many levels! And I get to see them almost everyday!

For lunch, James and I tried out a new Indian place that recently opened up. He gave me such a thoughtful gift too...a weighted blanket! I love it because it feels like I'm getting a huge warm embrace all night long! Dad stopped by in the afternoon and gave me an Instapot pressure cooker, and a blanket mom made. In the evening, I went out with friends for dinner and to see "Thoroughly Modern Millie" at the Hale Center Theater.

I didn't get home until 11pm, but sweet Alanna had waited up to give me this amazing and delicious chocolate mousse candy cake that she made me! I'm so proud of her for being so thoughtful and such a talented little baker! Look at that cake! It's all even and professional looking! And of course, I got the traditional yellow cake with canned chocolate frosting from the Peirce's. This time it had a "65" on it. It gets so much worse every year!

The day after my birthday, which is Luke's birthday, I met Luke and Caleb in Salt Lake for lunch. It was so fun to hang out with them for just an hour even! I love my brother's so much! They are so awesome I've never even missed having a sister!

Here's my High Fitness group with the killer workout written on the board in the background. I can't believe I'm 42! It seems old, but I really don't feel old! I'm in the best physical shape of my life, thanks to the hours I can spend at the gym while the kids are at school. I am so grateful to have a healthy body, and loving husband and kids, and so many more privileges in my life! The best part of getting older is that each year I acquire more and more friends who are an invaluable part of my life experience! 

Birthday trip to Moab...

We took a weekend trip to Moab to celebrate James's birthday, and my birthday. It was as beautiful as ever, though a bit cooler than when I went in September! We hadn't ever been to Canyonlands or Dead Horse Point, so it was really cool to explore totally new sites. The kids were troopers about hiking, hiking, and hiking some more! We bribed them with good food, like this Mexican restaurant!

Still can't get a normal face our of James

We played games for hours in our hotel room

We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place that people from all over the planet come to visit! I need to remember that when I'm sitting in my freezing, snow covered house all winter!

Random happenings...

Blaze made a rose out of his High Chew candies

Alanna got braces put on! Two kids down, two to go!

Blaze was very proud of his homemade pretzel he made at school

Creative House cleaning...

One Saturday morning Alanna's assigned chore was to clean the baseboards. I heard a bunch of giggling and turned the corner to see this very creative method of cleaning she conned her brother into! Blaze was pulling one of Alanna's legs while she was holding the rag on the baseboards to collect the dust! I don't know how effective she was in cleaning, but they were having a great time together!

Paul was very proud of his rubber band car he made at school, and the kids had a fun time racing it down our long hallway over and over again. It brought back fond memories of when Jackson and Paul were tiny and spent hours racing their Hot Wheels down this hallway!